In the past, people typically listened to or watched content on a stand alone electronic device. For example, a person would play a compact disc (CD) on a stereo system. Similarly, a person would watch a digital versatile disc (DVD) or a broadcast television show on their television. Music and movies are examples of “digital content.” The digital content can be multimedia. Apple™ and “Yahoo! Music Engine™ (YME)” are examples of service providers. As electronic devices and the Internet have developed, service providers are making digital content available to users over the Internet. For example, Apple™ has made a lot of music available to users over the Internet. A person can download music that Apple™ has made available to their iPOD™. Further, YME™ has also made music available to users over the Internet. A person could download the music that YME™ has made available to a personal computer or a lap top.
In order to make profits, service providers charge people for the content they provide. Service providers cannot afford to provide digital content for free therefore digital rights management systems have been developed to control and enforce the way that digital content is distributed and used by people in order to protect the financial interests of service providers.
FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of a conventional system for service providers to provide digital content to users. The system 100 includes two service providers 110 and 120, a network 150, and two devices 130, 140. Each of the devices 130, 140 include digital rights management (DRM) systems 132, 142 and licenses 134, 144 (also referred to herein as “native licenses” since they are native to the DRM systems) for controlling and enforcing the way content obtained from respective service providers 110, 120 may be used. Service provider 110 could be YME™ and service provider 120 could be Apple™. Device 130 could be a personal computer and device 140 could be an iPOD™ (Apple™'s portable music player). The digital rights management system 132 can be used for obtaining content from YME™ and digital rights management system 142 can be used for obtaining content from Apple™. Examples of digital rights management systems include, but are not limited to, Apple FairPlay™, Microsoft™ DRM, Open Mobile Alliance™ (OMA) DRM, and Real Helix DRM™.
The drawings referred to in this description should not be understood as being drawn to scale except if specifically noted.